Destruction Warlock DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

If you are new to the Destruction Specialization, this is a great place to start reading and begin breaking down the key spells that hold together this specialization. On this page, we will discuss what abilities your specialization uses, how they influence gameplay and resource generation, and the ways they interact with each other and your cooldowns. If you have some experience with Destruction already, it is recommended you skip over this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

In order to utilize abilities more efficiently, check out the Macros section on the Add-on page.

Soul Shards are the main resource of Destruction Warlocks. Each Soul Shard is made up of 10 Soul Shard Fragments. Soul Shards and Fragments are generated by your filler spells and your DoT effect, and they can be spent on an extremely powerful nuke or an AoE damage-over-time effect. You can have a maximum of 5 Soul Shards (50 Soul Shard Fragments).

Mana is a secondary resource for Destruction Warlocks. Your main spells do not cost very much Mana to cast and will never threaten your Mana pool. Utility spells, such as Demonic Gateway, and crowd control abilities, such as Fear, cost relatively more Mana than ever before, so be wary about using them too liberally.

This page lists all the different abilities available after reaching the max level. If you are still in the process of leveling, check out the Warlock Leveling page, which offers detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose. They form the bread and butter of this specialization.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.

Immolate is a damage-over-time spell that deals very high damage. It generates a Soul Shard Fragment when it ticks and additional Fragment on critical strikes. This should be applied at all times to targets who will live for 5 seconds or more.

Incinerate is your main filler. It generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on hits and 2 Soul Shard Fragments on critical strikes.

While leveling, Warlocks will learn to summon different demons, each one offering a unique set of abilities and, therefore, better suited for specific situations.

Summon Imp is the first Demon available, offering ranged attacks and a defensive dispel. It is better suited for scenarios where having an additional defensive dispel that does not come from a player is valuable and when there are frequent target swaps and a melee demon without a charge would waste precious seconds.

Summon Voidwalker is the second Demon and the first melee. Sporting high armor, Taunt, and AoE is the better option to tank damage or to deal AoE.

Summon Sayaad offers a unique debuff that increases the damage taken from the Demon by up to 10% and slows the target by 50% while also offering Seduction as an additional form of crowd control. It is best suited for PvP and for pure single-target damage.

Summon Felhunter is the only baseline pet with an interrupt and an offensive purge, making it desirable in those situations.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Unending Resolve	UR	A baseline defensive cooldown, combining damage reduction along with interrupt and silence immunity.
Fear	-	An iconic Warlock ability that allows you to disorient a target for the duration, or until they suffer enough damage to snap out of it. It has no cooldown but is limited to 1 target at any time and has a relatively high mana cost.
Curse of Weakness	CoW	Slows the target's attack speed; it is mostly useful against enemies (or classes) that hit hard with their auto attacks.
Healthstone	HS	These are unique consumables created by Warlocks that restore 25% of a target's total health with 3 charges, made using Create Healthstone or later Create Soulwell.
Drain Life	DL	Channeled spell that transfers health from the target to the player; it is, first and foremost, a defensive tool to recover health points at the expense of lower damage output.
Eye of Kilrogg	-	Summon a separate entity which the player controls instead of themselves, allowing you to remotely scout locations without putting yourself in danger.
Unending Breath	UB	Enables underwater breathing and, most importantly, increases swim speed.
Subjugate Demon	-	Take control of any non-boss Demon and use it as your main pet for its duration.
Soul Leech	-	Passive that grants an absorption shield for 8% of all single target damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of maximum player health.
Soulstone	SS	Powerful utility that can be used both preemptively and reactively to resurrect a player in combat.
Command Demon	-	Condense, in a single keybind, your Demon's most relevant active abilities: Imp: Singe Magic; Voidwalker: Shadow Bulwark; Sayaad: Seduction; Felhunter: Devour Magic.
Ritual of Doom	-	Allows you to summon a Doomguard with the aid of 4 more players.
Ritual of Summoning	-	Allows you to create a summoning stone and summon party/raid members.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Fel Domination	FelDom	Reduces the next Demon summon cast time by 6 seconds and removes the Shard cost.
Demonic Circle	TP	Allows to place a rune for 15 minutes and to teleport to that location while removing movement slowing effects.
Burning Rush	BR	Toggle ability that provides movement speed bonus and a minimum speed of 100% at the expense of Warlock health as long as it is active.
Curse of Exhaustion	CoEx	Reduces target movement speed.
Curse of Tongues	CoT	Reduces target cast speed.
Howl of Terror	HoT	A disorient ability that can affect up to 5 targets within 10 yards of the Warlock. It works similarly to Fear but can hit multiple targets and is instant cast, making it valuable in PvP.
Mortal Coil	Coil	Horrify effect that incapacitates a target for 3 seconds but, above all, heals the Warlock for 20% of their total health. Extremely valuable both in PvP and PvE.
Banish	-	Allows for phasing a Demon or Aberration out, preventing any actions and making them immune.
Demonic Gateway	Gate, Gateway	Creates two points which players can travel between by interacting. Players may only use the gateway once every 90 seconds.
Dark Pact	DP	Sacrifices a portion of the caster's current health to provide a much greater shield. It can be used while crowd-controlled. Its low cooldown and strength of the shield is one of the main reasons warlocks are considered very durable and survivable.
Shadowfury	SF	The only AoE stun Warlocks have access to. Valuable in dungeons and PvP alike.
Soulburn	Sburn	Consumes a shard to enhance the next selected spell. The Drain Life and Healthstone is the strongest defensive option while being the one with the highest usability across all the various situations. The other choices can be equally powerful but are answers to particular scenarios.
Blight of Weakness	BoW	A stronger AoE Curse of Weakness with a much shorter duration and a cooldown.
Blight of Tongues	BoT	A stronger AoE Curse of Tongues with a much shorter duration and a cooldown.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Fel Pact	-	Reduces the cooldown of Fel Domination, increasing the frequency of use.
Demon Skin	-	Empowers the Soul Leech class trait offering passive generation while in combat and a maximum total shield possible.
Fel Armor	-	Empowers Soul Leech by staggering a portion of the damage received and offering passive damage reduction.
Fiendish Stride	-	Reduces the health cost of Burning Rush while also increasing the bonus movement speed.
Demonic Embrace	-	increases stamina.
Nightmare	-	Increase the amount of damage the targets will suffer before breaking from a Feared effect.
Horrify		Fear causes targets to tremble in place instead of fleeing.
Demonic Fortitude	-	Increases the Warlock and their pet's maximum health.
Infernal Beneficiary	IB	Healing done with Drain Life also affects primary demon at a larger rate.
Pact of the Annihilan	PoA	Increases Critical Strike chance.
Pact of the Satyr	PotS	Increases Haste.
Improved Mortal Coil	-	Increases cast range and healing done by Mortal Coil.
Foul Mouth	FM	Allows curses to affect all enemies within 10 yards of the target.
Empowered Healthstone	EHS	Increase the healing done by Healthstone
Abyss Walker	-	Offers a very moderate damage reduction after using either Demonic Gateway or Demonic Circle.
Fortified Soul	FS	Increase Soul Leech shield.
Teachings of the Black Harvest	-	Enhance pet's utility ability with a corresponding minor bonus effect.
Gorefiend's Avarice	GA	Fasten both channeling and healing done by Drain Life.
Ichor of Devils	-	Reduces the amount of health sacrificed for the same shield value.
Frequent Donor	-	Reduces Dark Pact cooldown.
Pact of the Eredar	-	Increases Intellect
Pact of the Nathrezim	-	Increases Leech
Demonic Resilience	-	Reduces the chance the Warlock will be critically hit and also reduces the damage their pet takes.
Empowered Drain Life	EDL	Increases the amount of heal granted by Drain Life and allows the spell to contribute towards Soul Leech shield.
Strength of Will	-	Increases the damage reduction component of Unending Resolve
Dark Accord	-	Reduces the cooldown of Unending Resolve.
Swift Artifice	-	Cast time reduction on Soulstone and Create Healthstone.
Soul Link	sl, link	Transfer a percentage of the damage taken by the Warlock to their pet instead. When using Grimoire of Sacrifice, it provides extra stamina.
Frequent Traveler	FT	Reduces the cast time and allows a second use of Demonic Gateway before incurring in its cooldown.
Fel Synergy	-	Provides constant background healing for the Warlock and their pet.
Oppressive Darkness	OD	Reduces cooldown and increases radius of Shadowfury, Reduces cooldown and increase target count to 10 for Howl of Terror.
Pact of Gluttony	PoG	Warlock Healthstones can be used by the caster every minute, without being limited to one per combat.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Chaos Bolt	CB	Single-target heavy damage ability that costs 2 Soul Shards. This damage is always a Critical Hit, and Chaos Bolt does increased damage (1% damage per 1% crit) based on your Critical Strike rating. This should be cast when you have Soul Shards available and, ideally, an active damage cooldown or proc.
Conflagrate	conf	Instant-cast spell with 2 charges. It generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments on cast and the cooldown of the charges is reduced by Haste rating.
Rain of Fire	RoF	Consumes 3 Soul Shards and deals Fire damage in an area over a period of 8 seconds (reduced by Haste). The choice node changes the targeting method from the default ground target Rain of Fire to a Rain of Fire cast on the current position of the target.
Havoc	-	Applies a debuff on a target that replicates all single-target abilities at 60% of their original strength.
Shadowburn	SBr	Single-target instant cast ability usable when the target is at 20% HP or less. It uses 1 Soul Shard, but if the target dies within 5 seconds, the Shard cost, and the charge is refunded.
Cataclysm	cata	Ground-targeted AoE high damage spell that also applies Immolate on enemies within 8 yards.
Summon Infernal	infernal	Targeted ability that deals Fire damage and stuns within an AoE. Upon landing, the Infernal generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds for you. It deals damage every 2 seconds to all nearby targets, scaling with Haste. Infernal lasts 30 seconds and has a 3-minute cooldown period.
Grimoire of Sacrifice	GoSac	Allows sacrificing the current Demon to inherit their Command Demon ability and a chance to deal additional Single Target Shadow damage on their spells.
Soul Fire	SF	Single-target hard-hitting ability on a 45-second cooldown that also applies Immolate and generates 1 full shard.
Dimensional Rift	rift	Instant-cast ability that opens a random portal which does damage and generates 3 Soul Shard fragments on cast.
Channel Demonfire	CDF	Cooldown-channeling ability that shoots bolts randomly at any target affected by Immolate.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Improved Conflagrate	-	Adds a third charge to Conflagrate.
Backdraft	BD	Makes Conflagrate lower the cast time of your next Incinerate, Chaos Bolt, or Soul Fire.
Practiced Chaos	-	Increase Mastery.
Roaring Blaze	RB	Spread an existing Immolate or Wither to up to 3 nearby targets.
Explosive Potential	EP	Reduces the cooldown of Conflagrate by 2 seconds.
Mayhem	-	Gives single-target spells a chance to apply a Havoc at reduced duration to a nearby random target.
Scalding Flames	ScF	Increases Immolate damage and duration.
Backlash	-	Passively grants increased critical strike chance and makes Physical attacks directed at you have a chance to grant a instant Incinerate cast.
Improved Havoc	-	Increases Havoc (but not Mayhem) duration and percentage of damage transferred.
Ashen Remains	AR	Increases Chaos Bolt and Incinerate damage on targets affected by Immolate.
Fiendish Cruelty	FC	Critical Strikes have a chance to make Shadowburn cost no shard and usable at any health threshold.
Chaotic Inferno	-	Chaos Bolt deals increased damage and has a chance to make Incinerate instant cast.
Flashpoint	FP	Gives bonus Haste when Immolate hits a target above the Health threshold.
Emberstorm	Es	Increases the damage of all Fire spells and reduces the cast time of Incinerate.
Fire and Brimstone	FnB	Makes Incinerate hit all targets nearby for a portion of the damage.
Lake of Fire	LoF	Cataclysm leaves an area that deals damage and increase damage taken from Immolate and Wither.
Reverse Entropy	RE	Gives your spells a chance to give 15% Haste for 8 seconds.
Internal Combustion	IC	Makes Chaos Bolt consume up to 5 seconds of an active Immolate to deal that damage immediately.
Crashing Chaos	CC	Increases the damage of your next 8 of Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire after casting Summon Infernal.
Rain of Chaos	RoC	Gives each Soul Shard spent during Summon Infernal duration a chance to spawn an additional Infernal.
Summoner's Embrace	SuE	Passive increase in Warlock and Pet damage.
Ruin	-	Passive Critical Strike damage increase.
Improved Chaos Bolt	ICB	Increases the damage and reduces the cast time of Chaos Bolt.
Destructive Rapidity	-	Increases the tick rate of both Rain of Fire and Summon Infernal Immolation aura.
Devastation	-	Passive Critical Strike chance increase.
Inferno	-	Reduce Summon Infernal cooldown.
Conflagration of Chaos	CoC	Gives Conflagrate and Shadowburn a chance to guarantee the next cast to be a critical hit, dealing additional damage based on Critical Strike chance.
Diabolic Embers	DE, embers	Doubles the amount of Soul Shard fragments generated by Incinerate.
Demonfire Infusion	DI	Periodic damage from Immolate and direct Incinerate hits have a chance to trigger a single Demonfire bolt at increased effectiveness.
Avatar of Destruction	AoD, avatar	Summons an Overfiend, which casts several Chaos Bolts at reduced effectiveness by casting Soul Fire or when a Chaos Tear Dimensional Rift is summoned.
Chaos Incarnate	CI	Increases the floor at which Soul Shard spenders are affected by Mastery. (The default is 50% of the value, and another random amount is added between 51 to 100%)
Alythess's Ire	AI	Rain of Fire has a chance to make the next Rain of Fire cost no shards.
Raging Demonfire	RD	Increases the number of bolts fired off by Channel Demonfire, and each bolt increases the duration of every active Immolates hit.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Diabolic Ritual	-	Spending Shards grants a buff which duration is reduced for every shard spent afterwards. Once expired the next Chaos Bolt, Shadowburn or Rain of Fire will summon a Overlord, a Mother of Chaos and a Pit Lord in this sequence.
Cloven Souls	-	Enemies attacked by Overlord will receive increased damage for a period.
Touch of Rancora	ToR	Increase the damage and reduce the cast time of Chaos Bolt, Shadowburn or Rain of Fire that summon one of the demons. Chaos Bolt will reduce Diabolic Ritual by 1 additional second.
Secrets of the Coven	-	Mother of Chaos empowers your next Incinerate to Infernal Bolt.
Diabolic Oculi	-	Reducing Diabolic Ritual summons a Diabolic Oculi up to 3. When summoning one of the demons Diabolic Oculi will detonate for AoE damage.
Soul-Etched Circles	-	Demonic Circle: Teleport always have the Soulburn effect.
Annihilan's Bellow	-	Reduces cooldown on Howl of Terror.
Cruelty of Kerxan	-	Summon Infernal grants Diabolic Ritual at a reduced duration.
Infernal Machine	IM	Spending shards during Summon Infernal reduce Diabolic Ritual buff by 1 additional second.
Infernal Vitality	-	Unending Resolve also heals you.
Infernal Bulwark	-	Unending Resolve grants a bigger Soul Leech maximum shield.
Looks That Kill	-	Diabolic Oculi will continuously damage the primary target.
Flames of Xoroth	-	Fire and Demons damage increased.
Abyssal Dominion	-	Summon Infernal deals more damage and when expires fracture in two smaller ones.
Gloom of Nathreza	-	Damage transferred by Havoc is increased.
Mind's Eye	-	Grant a stacking Intelligence buff for a period when Diabolic Oculi explode.
Ruination	-	Summoning a Pit Lord cause the next Chaos Bolt to become Ruination instead.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Wither	-	Replaces Immolate with a more powerful DoT that deals Shadowflame damage. Instant cast.
Xalan's Ferocity	-	Increases Fire damage and Fire spells gains more Critical Strike chance.
Blackened Soul	BS	DoT effect that triggers from Wither stacks collapsing.
Xalan's Cruelty	-	Increases Shadow damage and Shadow spells gains more Critical Strike chance.
Through the Felvine	-	Increase the damage of baseline shard spenders.
Curse of the Satyr	CoS	Adds Curse of Tongues effect to Curse of Weakness.
Aura of Enfeeblement	-	Affects every enemies within 30 yards with both Curse of Tongues and Curse of Weakness while Unending Resolve is active.
Hatefury Rituals	HR	Wither deals more damage but has a reduced duration.
Bleakheart Tactics	BT	Wither deals more damage and Blackened Soul has a chance to guarantee more than 1 stack.
Zevrim's Resilience	-	Dark Pact also heals you.
Illhoof's Design	-	Reduce your maximum health to guarantee a bigger Soul Leech maximum shield.
Devil Fruit	DF	Wither has a chance to guarantee Malevolence.
Mark of Xavius	-	Increase Wither and Blackened Soul damage.
Seeds of Their Demise	SotD	Guarantee to collapse Wither at 8 stacks or when the target is below 20% health. Blackened Soul damage has a chance to trigger Shard Instability.
Mark of Peroth'arn	-	Wither critical hits deal more damage and have a chance to add 1 extra stack.
Alzzin's Iniquity	-	Malevolence grants additional Haste and casting it increase the stacks even further.
Malevolence	malev	Cooldown that deals high damage on every target affected by Wither, increase current ongoing stacks and grants extra Critical Hit and Haste to the player. Casting Shard Spending abilities increase the stacks on every target each time.